Hairballs

My sister's kitten seems to have hairballs she said.. so I was wondering what would be a naturally safe thing to do to give to a kitten. She weighs between 1 - 2 lbs. We were thinking Petroleum jelly but everyone on this forum seems to be very knowledgeable about safety for kittens/cats so I figured I would ask here first. :-)

Thanks all!

Petroleum jelly blocks nutrient absorbtion, so that is not ideal. If you are feeding dry, switching to wet helps a lot. Otherwise you can feed egg yolk lecithin to help break down the hairballs and pass them through.

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=egg+yolk+lecithin&tag=&tag=thecatsite

Our cats and kittens have this problem and the one thing that helped was a paste called anti-hairball paste that we got from the pet store. The cats loved it and they never had any problems with hair balls whilst we were giving them the paste and if they did have hairballs it helped them cough them up really easily. I am in the UK and we got it from pets at home and it was a brand called Dr Clauder's but if you are not in the UK just have a look at the pet store and I'm sure they will have something similar

Anyone ever used pumpkin?

ocd4cats said:

 
Anyone ever used pumpkin?

Click to expand...

Pumpkin is more often used for constipation......not sure if it helps with hairballs.

Or baby food squash? or butter?

I read this on another website:

Some cat owners have had success by giving their cats a small amount of butter (about 1/2 teaspoon) two or three times a week. Others have offered a teaspoon of canned pumpkin (non-flavored) or baby food squash. Cats generally enjoy these extra "treats," and they may help by adding lubrication or soft bulk to help hairballs pass. The pumpkin or squash are also sometimes used to help with constipation or diarrhea, because of their added fiber.